They say the most infuriating curse word to hear are your parents.
I was fine until I started swearing at him, but when I heard him swear at his parents, it was like something snapped in my head.
As I continued to ignore him and do other things, I couldn’t help but look at him. Seeing him flinch involuntarily at my sudden behavior, I spoke in a sullen voice.
“Hey.”
His eyes snapped up and repeated, “Hey?”
“Because you didn’t give me your name, or did you ever say it?”
“No, we haven’t, but I don’t have a name to give a witch.”
“Okay, then I’ll call you stone.”
(돌쇠 – an old term used to call a manservant in Korean, ex. slave, strong servant.)
“What?”
“You said you didn’t have a name for me.”
When I looked at him as if to say, ‘That’s why I gave you a nickname, what’s wrong with that?’ he gave me an incredulous look.
Then soon after, I snorted and said, ‘I’ll call you that.’
“Ha, my fault for expecting common sense from an unscrupulous human being. Have it your way, you can go around calling me stupid for being so unscrupulous.” (Kassar)
“Unscrupulous or stupid?”
I was tempted to argue with him, but I restrained myself.
I knew that if we continued to argue pointlessly, one day I would be the first one to burst out of my shell and storm off, just like he wanted.
Okay, let’s get serious about the situation. I pulled myself together and gazed at him.
“Why on earth would you accuse me of being unscrupulous?”
“…”
“As I’ve already told you, I’ve never met Lord Stoneman before, and I can’t possibly have done anything improper.”
“Not stone…!” (Kassar)
“Is it because of the Knights?” asked Dahlia.
His eyes widened, as if he hadn’t realized what I was about to say, and he quickly shut up, as if the answer was obvious.
“Because you demand the rights of the Knights? You don’t even know the proper order of things?”
“Yes, because a simple merchant, blinded by greed, tried to take something that didn’t fit in the fountain…” (Kassar)
“But in the end, it was the merchant’s money that brought you back to life, wasn’t it?”
His face contorted.
“Then tell me. Who on earth could have helped Bouser in that situation?”
“That’s…” (Kassar)
“Goldman said it’s not worth it, the emperor is sitting on the sidelines, and the other families don’t have the money to pay for it.”
“…”
“And we’ve only helped modestly? We’ve been responsible for the restoration of the half-destroyed Knights Order, paid off the Duke’s debts, and sent relief to the struggling estates.”
“…”
“Isn’t that enough for you?”
He bit his lip. Judging by the way he didn’t answer, I could tell he knew there was nothing wrong with what I said.
But he still didn’t want to admit it, so he gritted his teeth and replied.
“But in the end, they did steal it from us, didn’t they?” (Kassar)
“Steal? It was a 50/50 split.”
“That’s the thing, they can’t take credit for a subject that was won by the might of our knights…!” (Kassar)
“No, we certainly have our share of the credit. Do you think you could have done as well as you did without us, and with half of it destroyed?”
“…”
“Isn’t it about time you admitted that this was a fair trade?”
His fury-filled eyes turned to me, “A fair trade? Ha, then why don’t you admit it too? It was an unfair trade on our part, no matter how you look at it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, as you said, we had no choice but to take your hand or destroy ourselves.” (Kassar)
“…”
“You took us by force, with no choice, and you call it justice? I can’t even laugh at that. You only lost money, but we lost our rights. We’ll have to do what you tell us to do for the rest of our lives.”
“No,” I said firmly, “You don’t have to do what I say, and I don’t want to.”
“What?” (Kassar)
“I don’t need the Knights.”
His eyes widened.
“It’s not just me, my father thinks the same way. Honestly, the Knights are of little use to us. We’re merchants, as you say, and we have no interest in turf wars, nor do we need troops anywhere.”
“Then for what…”
“Because I needed a reason to convince them.”
I swallowed dryly, then continued calmly.
“In the first place, my family wanted to help Bouser, of course. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“…”
“But it’s not just a personal relationship, you know. It takes a huge amount of aid from the family to make up for a loss of this magnitude, and we need to have a good reason to convince the vassals.”
“Is that the right of the Knights?” (Kassar)
“It is the most valuable thing in Bouser.”
I stood tall and met his eyes.
“But we don’t intend to take that treasure for ourselves, and we don’t intend to wield Bouser with it.”
“…”
“Have we ever used the Knights in the first place?”
He couldn’t answer my question. It would be inevitable.
Even when we were in full support of the Knights, we were never really involved in their operations, pulling strings or otherwise mobilizing them.
This was true before the war, and it was true after the peace. We never used the Knights personally.
“And we never will.”
That much I could say with confidence. If I had to borrow the power of the Knights, it would be in consultation with Rudrick, and only with his help.
And I thought that if I told him this much, he would be convinced.
His expression seemed to soften a bit, as I suspected it would, since the reason he’d been so hostile to me all this time was that he thought I coveted the Knights.
“So it’s all a sham.” (Kassar)
“Exactly.”
“And you’ll never use it.” (Kassar)
“Of course not.”
“So what do you want me to do?” (Kassar)
“I understand… What?”
My eyes widened.
“I don’t trust people, especially when it comes to money.” (Kassar)
“…”
“Who would have thought that you would still be making up lies to deceive me?” (Kassar)
“What do you think I’m going to do with Lord Stone?”
“That darned Stone…! I’ve seen too many people who say nice things and then go back on their word.” (Kassar)
What the hell am I supposed to do then?
I stared at him in disbelief, and then, when he was still giving me the distrustful look, I asked cautiously.
“Then what the hell do you want…”
“Get out of here.” (Kassar)
“…”
“And don’t go anywhere near His Excellency.” (Kassar)
“Why?”
The answer didn’t take long for me to realize: I knew he was trying to get rid of me, but why with Rudrick?
“It’s obvious why a shameless, unscrupulous, sniveling woman like you would be in his presence, isn’t it?” (Kassar)
“What does that mean…”
“Don’t you think I don’t know that you’re after the seat of Duchess at the ducal residence?”
“What?!”
My mouth dropped open at the unexpected answer.
He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared down at me with pride. Then he opened his mouth with a look of benevolence on his face.
“I’ll give you a day.” (Kassar)
“What?”
“Tomorrow, pack up and get the hell out of here.” (Kassar)
“Hey, I’m not insane!”
I exploded in frustration in the mirror, and the maid who was carrying the bundle next to me flinched in surprise.
Hestia, who was drinking tea next to me, took the remark in stride.
“Miss, it’s bad for your blood pressure if you suddenly get angry.”
“He said he doesn’t trust me because I have a lot of money, do you understand?”
“Is his head in the right place?”
Watching Hestia swear at the top of her lungs, I burst out laughing. But it didn’t last long.
I sighed heavily and grumbled, as if depressed.
“I told him that I was being nice, and he said he understood, and now he wants me to leave. He’s not afraid to swear at me, and he looks down upon me from above as if he can say whatever he wants, so how can I possibly feel that bad…”
“Yo— you’re right…”
“Huh?”
While I was talking nonstop, I heard a small voice from somewhere.
My head spun in the direction of the voice, and at the same time, I made eye contact with the maid who was gently brushing my hair from behind.
She was the same maid who had greeted me with gratitude on my first day in the north, but who had then run off in a huff.
Without realizing what she had said, she stared at me blankly, and then, as if realizing the situation in hindsight, her shoulders shook with anger.
But I didn’t seize the opportunity, and I spoke up.
“Really? You knew about it?”
“Oh, well, that’s…”
She looked away, embarrassed. Then she gave a small nod, looking like she had a lot to say.
“Yeah, yeah… I know.”
With that, our small talk began.
“What’s it usually like?”
“Same as you said, or… It’s a little worse, because he’ll make faces at us if we even try to walk in front of him.”
“Wow, that’s bad. What did you do wrong?”
“Well, you know, I didn’t do anything, and sometimes he’ll rub his hands together and call us ‘rats’ and…”
“Isn’t it a human breed?”
Cecil, the maid seemed to have a lot on her mind as she spilled out her words.
At first, she stammered, but then her eyes lit up at our enthusiastic response and she nodded vigorously.
“That’s right, even to Lord Leona, who’s been so nice to us, she’s always calling her a brat and a stupid woman.”
“There’s a reason he’s been swearing at Lord Leona so much.”
“If we do anything wrong, he smashes everything in the room, never thinking about us who have to clean it up… And when we come in to clean it up, he glares at us and asks us when we’re going to leave…”
“He’s got a bad temper.”
“Yeah, and the other day he got mad at me for giving him a small piece of clothing.”
Cecil suddenly stopped talking, her lips twitching as if she was holding back a laugh.
“But then something else funny happened, and we laughed for a long time.”
“Something funny?”
“Yeah, I mean, the knight was wearing a shirt…”
She lowered her voice quietly.
“It was a small shirt, and all the buttons on his chest popped off.”
“Pfft…”
“Oh, my gosh.”
“My friend was hit by the button that popped off, and she said she was sick and thought she was going to die from laughing so hard.”
I let out an exclamation.
“Wow… You must have really big boobs.”
“Ugh… so from then on, we call each other ‘King Boob Knight’.”
“What? The King Boob Knight? Pfft— hahaha!”
Eventually, I couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. Cecil was biting her lip tightly, obviously trying to control her reaction.
“…‘Lord Kingboob’ for short, Lord Kingboob.”
“Isn’t that a little too blatant, Sir Knight King for short…”
“No, it sounds like it implies greatness.”
“Well, then…”
Cecil, who was blushing for some reason, spoke up cautiously.
“Lord Button…”
“What, Lord Button? Hahaha!”
I had to slap my knee again to stop myself from laughing. Soon Cecil and Hestia couldn’t help but laugh, too, and we laughed for a while longer, until we were all chattering excitedly.
At the same time, I realized that this was pretty good.
The tense atmosphere had been loosened for a change, and I figured that even Kassar could be helpful at times.
But I had no idea.
How our joking nickname, Lord Button, would spread throughout the manor in a single day.
They say the most infuriating curse word to hear are your parents.
I was fine until I started swearing at him, but when I heard him swear at his parents, it was like something snapped in my head.
As I continued to ignore him and do other things, I couldn’t help but look at him. Seeing him flinch involuntarily at my sudden behavior, I spoke in a sullen voice.
“Hey.”
His eyes snapped up and repeated, “Hey?”
“Because you didn’t give me your name, or did you ever say it?”
“No, we haven’t, but I don’t have a name to give a witch.”
“Okay, then I’ll call you stone.”
(돌쇠 – an old term used to call a manservant in Korean, ex. slave, strong servant.)
“What?”
“You said you didn’t have a name for me.”
When I looked at him as if to say, ‘That’s why I gave you a nickname, what’s wrong with that?’ he gave me an incredulous look.
Then soon after, I snorted and said, ‘I’ll call you that.’
“Ha, my fault for expecting common sense from an unscrupulous human being. Have it your way, you can go around calling me stupid for being so unscrupulous.” (Kassar)
“Unscrupulous or stupid?”
I was tempted to argue with him, but I restrained myself.
I knew that if we continued to argue pointlessly, one day I would be the first one to burst out of my shell and storm off, just like he wanted.
Okay, let’s get serious about the situation. I pulled myself together and gazed at him.
“Why on earth would you accuse me of being unscrupulous?”
“…”
“As I’ve already told you, I’ve never met Lord Stoneman before, and I can’t possibly have done anything improper.”
“Not stone…!” (Kassar)
“Is it because of the Knights?” asked Dahlia.
His eyes widened, as if he hadn’t realized what I was about to say, and he quickly shut up, as if the answer was obvious.
“Because you demand the rights of the Knights? You don’t even know the proper order of things?”
“Yes, because a simple merchant, blinded by greed, tried to take something that didn’t fit in the fountain…” (Kassar)
“But in the end, it was the merchant’s money that brought you back to life, wasn’t it?”
His face contorted.
“Then tell me. Who on earth could have helped Bouser in that situation?”
“That’s…” (Kassar)
“Goldman said it’s not worth it, the emperor is sitting on the sidelines, and the other families don’t have the money to pay for it.”
“…”
“And we’ve only helped modestly? We’ve been responsible for the restoration of the half-destroyed Knights Order, paid off the Duke’s debts, and sent relief to the struggling estates.”
“…”
“Isn’t that enough for you?”
He bit his lip. Judging by the way he didn’t answer, I could tell he knew there was nothing wrong with what I said.
But he still didn’t want to admit it, so he gritted his teeth and replied.
“But in the end, they did steal it from us, didn’t they?” (Kassar)
“Steal? It was a 50/50 split.”
“That’s the thing, they can’t take credit for a subject that was won by the might of our knights…!” (Kassar)
“No, we certainly have our share of the credit. Do you think you could have done as well as you did without us, and with half of it destroyed?”
“…”
“Isn’t it about time you admitted that this was a fair trade?”
His fury-filled eyes turned to me, “A fair trade? Ha, then why don’t you admit it too? It was an unfair trade on our part, no matter how you look at it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, as you said, we had no choice but to take your hand or destroy ourselves.” (Kassar)
“…”
“You took us by force, with no choice, and you call it justice? I can’t even laugh at that. You only lost money, but we lost our rights. We’ll have to do what you tell us to do for the rest of our lives.”
“No,” I said firmly, “You don’t have to do what I say, and I don’t want to.”
“What?” (Kassar)
“I don’t need the Knights.”
His eyes widened.
“It’s not just me, my father thinks the same way. Honestly, the Knights are of little use to us. We’re merchants, as you say, and we have no interest in turf wars, nor do we need troops anywhere.”
“Then for what…”
“Because I needed a reason to convince them.”
I swallowed dryly, then continued calmly.
“In the first place, my family wanted to help Bouser, of course. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“…”
“But it’s not just a personal relationship, you know. It takes a huge amount of aid from the family to make up for a loss of this magnitude, and we need to have a good reason to convince the vassals.”
“Is that the right of the Knights?” (Kassar)
“It is the most valuable thing in Bouser.”
I stood tall and met his eyes.
“But we don’t intend to take that treasure for ourselves, and we don’t intend to wield Bouser with it.”
“…”
“Have we ever used the Knights in the first place?”
He couldn’t answer my question. It would be inevitable.
Even when we were in full support of the Knights, we were never really involved in their operations, pulling strings or otherwise mobilizing them.
This was true before the war, and it was true after the peace. We never used the Knights personally.
“And we never will.”
That much I could say with confidence. If I had to borrow the power of the Knights, it would be in consultation with Rudrick, and only with his help.
And I thought that if I told him this much, he would be convinced.
His expression seemed to soften a bit, as I suspected it would, since the reason he’d been so hostile to me all this time was that he thought I coveted the Knights.
“So it’s all a sham.” (Kassar)
“Exactly.”
“And you’ll never use it.” (Kassar)
“Of course not.”
“So what do you want me to do?” (Kassar)
“I understand… What?”
My eyes widened.
“I don’t trust people, especially when it comes to money.” (Kassar)
“…”
“Who would have thought that you would still be making up lies to deceive me?” (Kassar)
“What do you think I’m going to do with Lord Stone?”
“That darned Stone…! I’ve seen too many people who say nice things and then go back on their word.” (Kassar)
What the hell am I supposed to do then?
I stared at him in disbelief, and then, when he was still giving me the distrustful look, I asked cautiously.
“Then what the hell do you want…”
“Get out of here.” (Kassar)
“…”
“And don’t go anywhere near His Excellency.” (Kassar)
“Why?”
The answer didn’t take long for me to realize: I knew he was trying to get rid of me, but why with Rudrick?
“It’s obvious why a shameless, unscrupulous, sniveling woman like you would be in his presence, isn’t it?” (Kassar)
“What does that mean…”
“Don’t you think I don’t know that you’re after the seat of Duchess at the ducal residence?”
“What?!”
My mouth dropped open at the unexpected answer.
He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared down at me with pride. Then he opened his mouth with a look of benevolence on his face.
“I’ll give you a day.” (Kassar)
“What?”
“Tomorrow, pack up and get the hell out of here.” (Kassar)
“Hey, I’m not insane!”
I exploded in frustration in the mirror, and the maid who was carrying the bundle next to me flinched in surprise.
Hestia, who was drinking tea next to me, took the remark in stride.
“Miss, it’s bad for your blood pressure if you suddenly get angry.”
“He said he doesn’t trust me because I have a lot of money, do you understand?”
“Is his head in the right place?”
Watching Hestia swear at the top of her lungs, I burst out laughing. But it didn’t last long.
I sighed heavily and grumbled, as if depressed.
“I told him that I was being nice, and he said he understood, and now he wants me to leave. He’s not afraid to swear at me, and he looks down upon me from above as if he can say whatever he wants, so how can I possibly feel that bad…”
“Yo— you’re right…”
“Huh?”
While I was talking nonstop, I heard a small voice from somewhere.
My head spun in the direction of the voice, and at the same time, I made eye contact with the maid who was gently brushing my hair from behind.
She was the same maid who had greeted me with gratitude on my first day in the north, but who had then run off in a huff.
Without realizing what she had said, she stared at me blankly, and then, as if realizing the situation in hindsight, her shoulders shook with anger.
But I didn’t seize the opportunity, and I spoke up.
“Really? You knew about it?”
“Oh, well, that’s…”
She looked away, embarrassed. Then she gave a small nod, looking like she had a lot to say.
“Yeah, yeah… I know.”
With that, our small talk began.
“What’s it usually like?”
“Same as you said, or… It’s a little worse, because he’ll make faces at us if we even try to walk in front of him.”
“Wow, that’s bad. What did you do wrong?”
“Well, you know, I didn’t do anything, and sometimes he’ll rub his hands together and call us ‘rats’ and…”
“Isn’t it a human breed?”
Cecil, the maid seemed to have a lot on her mind as she spilled out her words.
At first, she stammered, but then her eyes lit up at our enthusiastic response and she nodded vigorously.
“That’s right, even to Lord Leona, who’s been so nice to us, she’s always calling her a brat and a stupid woman.”
“There’s a reason he’s been swearing at Lord Leona so much.”
“If we do anything wrong, he smashes everything in the room, never thinking about us who have to clean it up… And when we come in to clean it up, he glares at us and asks us when we’re going to leave…”
“He’s got a bad temper.”
“Yeah, and the other day he got mad at me for giving him a small piece of clothing.”
Cecil suddenly stopped talking, her lips twitching as if she was holding back a laugh.
“But then something else funny happened, and we laughed for a long time.”
“Something funny?”
“Yeah, I mean, the knight was wearing a shirt…”
She lowered her voice quietly.
“It was a small shirt, and all the buttons on his chest popped off.”
“Pfft…”
“Oh, my gosh.”
“My friend was hit by the button that popped off, and she said she was sick and thought she was going to die from laughing so hard.”
I let out an exclamation.
“Wow… You must have really big boobs.”
“Ugh… so from then on, we call each other ‘King Boob Knight’.”
“What? The King Boob Knight? Pfft— hahaha!”
Eventually, I couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. Cecil was biting her lip tightly, obviously trying to control her reaction.
“…‘Lord Kingboob’ for short, Lord Kingboob.”
“Isn’t that a little too blatant, Sir Knight King for short…”
“No, it sounds like it implies greatness.”
“Well, then…”
Cecil, who was blushing for some reason, spoke up cautiously.
“Lord Button…”
“What, Lord Button? Hahaha!”
I had to slap my knee again to stop myself from laughing. Soon Cecil and Hestia couldn’t help but laugh, too, and we laughed for a while longer, until we were all chattering excitedly.
At the same time, I realized that this was pretty good.
The tense atmosphere had been loosened for a change, and I figured that even Kassar could be helpful at times.
But I had no idea.
How our joking nickname, Lord Button, would spread throughout the manor in a single day.
